This past weekend was, in 2 words, life-changing.

Does that count as 2 words if it’s hyphenated?

Does it even need to be hyphenated?

Idk.

Anyways.

I was invited to participate in the 2023 Gloo AI & the Church Hackathon.

If you want to skip through this newsletter and watch this 3-minute video they put together showcasing what happened this weekend, you have that option, I’m in it a few times.

But… If you want to hear about my experience this weekend, keep reading.

Also, if you have any questions about this event, myself, BibleMate, or anything else — feel free to reply to this email and I’ll personally answer all of them.

Gloo, In their own words: “Gloo, the leading technology platform dedicated to connecting the faith ecosystem and releasing its collective might, announced a first-of-its-kind event, The AI & the Church Hackathon event, aimed at rapidly advancing artificial intelligence-based technology to serve the faith community. The Hackathon will take technologists from around the world and will take place October 6-8, 2023, in Boulder, Colorado. The event will focus on exploring how artificial intelligence can be used for good.”

40+ teams and over 200 participants came together for the Church AI hackathon.

BibleMate.io was one of those teams.

How did I get here?

After discovering a Facebook group dedicated to Christians and AI, I decided to plop in what I was working on, back when BibleMate was a shell of what it is now.

I was DM'd shortly after by the Head of AI & Growth @ Gloo, asking to have a short conversation!

During this conversation, I learned more about Gloo, AI, and what their goal was with this conversation.

I was personally invited to attend their hackathon!

"What the heck is a hackathon?" I asked myself.

Oh well. This was a pivotal moment for me. We talked about the vision of BibleMate, what it was going to be, where I saw it going in the future.. etc. etc.

I even (“jokingly”) hinted at me wanting to leave my current job and go all in. That’s how committed I was.

I was told in that call “Nils, don’t quit your job.”

I didn't need to leave my job, I had a budding career in Commercial Real Estate coming up, and I was proving that I could do it - But I just didn't 'see' myself doing it for the rest of my life selling industrial buildings.

So in true entrepreneurial fashion, I quit my job 1 month before the hackathon, moved back to MN, and decided I wasn't going to look for a job until this hackathon was over.

So I kept developing and iterating the Bible study tool, and I went to Colorado for the hackathon this past weekend and something unexpected, but truly awesome happened (keep reading)

I left my home at 3PM last Thursday, and drove straight to Boulder, arriving at 5AM (with the help of my mom!).

So I slept until about 9AM.

The event started at 3PM that day, but of course, with adrenaline coming in and me having no idea what to expect at this event, that’s all I “could” sleep.

The event started, going from Friday at 3pm → Sunday at 9AM.

I went back home to the hotel by 10:30PM that evening, and slept a nice handful of ours before heading back to the facility at 7AM.

From 7AM Saturday morning, to 5AM the next day, I spent at the facility, developing BibleMate. Working on new features, networking, and developing a 90-second video I had to present.

You can watch that 90-second video here. I spent 10 hours on it.

I wanted to go out of the box and do something crazy — so I decided to ‘try’ to make my video cinematic. Lol.

Either the judges are 1. This was great! or 2. Nils, what are you doing…?

I didn’t go to bed until Sunday at 9PM - meaning, I was up for 38 hours straight. I was almost delirious.

But what actually happened this weekend, outside of the awesome networking, being surrounded by like-minded individuals, and the awesome atmosphere of Christians coming together to build something amazing?

Well..

BibleMate won an award.

"Best product design": awarded by 3 judges; the CEO of Gloo, the CTO of YouVersion (yes.. the Bible app you all have), and a VP of RightNow Media.

Leaving me with a modest cash prize, and potential access to $750K in funding if they want to partner with me or any other of the tools/teams from the event.

So I'll know if that happens within the next few weeks.

But even if it doesn't and BibleMate, or myself, isn’t on their radar or plan for this accelerator fund, that doesn’t mean BibleMate, or myself, are out.

In fact, it means the opposite.

For the time being, God has placed this in front of me to develop, grow, and ultimately create something that Christians will use to grow closer to God, improve their knowledge of scripture, and through that, lead to transformed lives and relationships.

That’s my commitment.

Gloo did an amazing job hosting this event, and I couldn’t feel any better coming out the other side.

If any of you Gloo members are reading this, thank you.

Thank you for reading!

Let me know your thoughts.

And please consider sharing this newsletter with your friends and family!

-Nils